DAILY GRAPHIC, Tuesday, July 18, 2012, Front Page & Pg. 3. Military aircraft loses fuel tanks in flight




Some journalists being conducted round the K8 aircraft at the Air Force Base in Accra after the accident

  Story: Emmanuel Bonney & Mary Ankrah

Two fuel tanks of a Ghana Air Force jet fighter came off the aircraft and crashed into pieces on the ground at Sakora in the Adentan municipality of Accra yesterday.

One of the tanks fell near a house, while the other landed in an open space.

In spite of the incident, the aircraft, which was on a routine training flight under the command of two pilots, returned safely to the Air Force Base.

There were no casualties.

The K-8 jet fighter which had taken off at the Air Force Base at 10.27 a.m. returned to base at 10.35 a.m. after losing the fuel tanks.

The incident, which drew a large crowd, including students, to the scenes, did not damage any property or cause injuries to anybody at Sakora.

There was a huge police presence to ensure law and order.

The military plane is said to have been purchased by the government from China about four years ago. 

When the Daily Graphic got to the scene, the place had been cordoned off, while some officials of the Ghana Air Force, the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and the police were making efforts to pull out one of the tanks which was stuck in the ground near a septic tank and a fully fenced house.

Parts of the tank were also seen scattered around the area.

Before falling onto the ground, the tank had ripped off some leaves of a mango tree.

In the compound of the house was the overpowering scent of the fuel which had discoloured some of the leaves of the mango tree.

Madam Lahira Inusah, a sister to the landlord of the house, who was a few metres away from where the tank fell, escaped unhurt.

She told the Daily Graphic that she was outside the house with her dog when she heard a big bang on the compound.

She said minutes later, she saw the aircraft fly past.

“Before I realised, the dog had run away, leaving me alone. I then looked to my left and saw the tank crash and the fuel spill. I was lucky because it could have hit me or fallen onto the house,” she said.

Madam Inusah's brother, Ibrahim Maida, who was in town when the tank fell into their house, pledged to assist in investigations into the cause of the incident.

A resident of the adjacent house, Philip Kwawu, said he saw the tank land in the house.

He said he was going to his room when he saw the tank land in the nearby house and so he mobilised three persons and then scaled the wall into the house to find out what had happened after hearing a loud noise.

It was on entering the house that he found the tank stuck in the ground, a situation that compelled him to call the police.

When contacted, the Director of Public Affairs of the Ghana Armed Forces, Colonel M’bawine Atintande, told journalists that additional fuel tanks on the aircraft  helped to sustain the jet fighter.

He said the cause of the incident would be known after investigations into it had been completed.

The Madina Police Commander, Chief Superintendent Anderson Fosu-Ackaah, told the Daily Graphic that the police were investigating the incident.

The torn pieces of the tanks have been retrieved from the ground by the police and sent to the Air Force Base, while the spilled fuel has been scooped into two gallons and a big rubber bowl.